How will the new owners revitalize the Old Dane golf course?


By: April 9, 2024


The Andersen family in Nebraska, known for their Landmand Golf Club (King-Collins design), are taking on a new challenge with a new golf course development.

The family acquired the Old Dane golf course in 2007 and rebuilt it in 2012. The Old Dane golf course (9 holes) is just a few miles from the Landmand Golf Club.

The Andersen family recognized the potential of the Old Dane Golf Course and took the initiative to revamp it with the aim of making it more appealing and up-to-date.

The Old Dane Golf Links Nebraska

To bring their vision to life, they enlisted the expertise of Trevor Dormer, a skilled golf course designer from Canada.

Dormer has worked largely with Coore and Crenshaw for the last decade, spending more than two years constructing the new Cabot St Lucia course.

He is currently working for the firm on the new Torch Cay project in the Bahamas. A few years ago, he met the Andersen family while building the nearby Landmand course for architects King-Collins.

Dormer’s plan for Old Dane calls for the 93-acre property to be completely rerouted (see picture below), giving a 12-hole course with 6, 9, and 12-hole loops. The course’s driving range will be eliminated, allowing space to build three extra holes.

The almost entirely flat site – there is a total of five feet of elevation change on the entire property – will be reshaped using fill from the excavation of a 2-acre lake.

The article continues below.

Old Dane routing

Old Dane golf course – the changes

There will be quirk out there – the eleventh green will be elevated by about fifteen-twenty feet – and the fairways will be significantly wider than what is out there now.

The 3rd and 8th will play on a shared fairway. The third green will be like a loaf of bread—it will roll off on all sides.

The architect says

“This October/November this year, we’re going to dig the lake and establish concepts for the greens. This fall I can probably get eight or nine greens roughed in, and we will finish construction next year.”

Old Dane will close its 2024 season on October 1, and then Dormer and his crew will move on to the property. The course will reopen late in the 2026 season.

The owner expects Old Dane’s green fees – which are currently $15 for nine holes and $25 for eighteen – to remain substantially the same